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I’ve Gotta Get a Message to You Lyrics Sung by the Bee Gees

The preacher talked to me and he smiled
Said, “Come and walk with me, come and walk one more mile
Now, for once in your life, you’re alone
But you ain’t got a dime, there’s no time for the phone”

I’ve just gotta get a message to you
Hold on, hold on
One more hour and my life will be through
Hold on, hold on

I told him I’m in no hurry
But if I broke her heart then won’t you tell her I’m sorry?
And for once in my life I’m alone
And I got to let her know just in time before I go

I’ve just gotta get a message to you
Hold on, hold on
One more hour and my life will be through
Hold on, hold on

Well, I laughed but that didn’t hurt
And it’s only her love that keeps me wearing this dirt
Now, I’m crying but deep down inside
Well, I did it to him, now, it’s my turn to die

I’ve just gotta get a message to you
Hold on, hold on
One more hour and my life will be through
Hold on, hold on

Hold on
One more hour and my life will be through
Hold on, hold on

I’ve just gotta get a message to you
Hold on, hold on
One more hour and my life will be through

Enjoy This Video of I’ve Gotta Get a Message to You Lyrics

Some Facts About I’ve Gotta Get a Message to You Lyrics and the Bee Gees

I’ve Gotta Get a Message to You lyrics and music is a rock ballad by the Bee Gees. Released as a single on 7 September 1968, it became their second number-one single on the UK Singles Chart. The song also went to number one in Ireland, and reached number eight in the US, became their first top-ten hit in Billboard Hot 100 chart in their music career. In the United Kingdom the song was released as a single only. The song appeared on the US edition of the Bee Gees’ third album Idea, but not in the United Kingdom, where the Vince Melouney track “Such a Shame” appeared instead.

The Story Behind the Song

The song is about a man who, awaiting his execution in the electric chair, begs the prison chaplain to pass a final message on to his wife. Robin Gibb, who wrote the lyrics, said that the man’s crime was the murder of his wife’s lover, though the lyrics do not explicitly allude to the latter premise (although there is a verse “Well I did it to him, now it’s my turn to die”). Robin said: “This is about a prisoner on Death Row who only has a few hours to live. He wants the prison chaplain to pass on a final message to his wife. There’s a certain urgency about it. Myself and Barry wrote it. It’s a bit like writing a script. Sometimes you can sit there for three hours with your guitar and nothing will happen. Then in the last ten minutes something will spark.”

Barry recalls: “In those days, the lyrics were almost pretty well done on the spot. I don’t remember the fundamentals on how the lyrics were formed, except that we were writing about a guy on death row. That was it”. Robin adds:

“It was like acting, you see, we said, let’s pretend that somebody, his life is on the line, somebody’s going to the chair. What would be going through their mind? Let’s not make it doom and gloom but sort of an appeal to the person he loves. Because right now that’s all he cares about. Regardless of whether he’s done a bad thing, he is a human being, and he’s sending out this last message. There’s someone out there whom he loves. It’s a torch song, but within a very sort of theatrical sense. Not sort of abstract, but definitely somebody in a very bad situation whose life is going to end. What would they be saying, you know? This is it: ‘Gotta get a message to you, hold on”.

“I’ve Gotta Get a Message to You” was recorded with “I Laugh in Your Face” (released on Odessa in 1969) on 12 July 1968. This track was not recorded during the Idea sessions, the last recording session was 25 June 1968 when they recorded “I Started a Joke“. As Barry explains: Now that was a memorable night, The song we wrote together, all three of us. I think that night, I know for a fact, we didn’t sing the choruses in harmony. Robert called us back to the studio at 11 o’clock at night and said, ‘I want the choruses in harmony, I don’t want them in just melody. I want three-part harmony choruses.’ So we went in and attempted that ’round about midnight. Everyone drove back to the studio, and that’s what we did”. The song features bass lines by Maurice Gibb as Barry explained: “He had a lot of intensity in his bass, Mo was a real [Paul] McCartney bass freak, as a lot of us were. He would pick up on all the things that McCartney would [do]. Maurice was very good on different instruments, you know. Good lead guitarist, good bass player, good keyboard player. He was versatile. He loved playing bass more than anything else, I think, at that time.”